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DC Collectibles: An Interview with Lauren Faust

DC Collectibles: An Interview with Lauren Faust

Hey, guess what? This week’s DC Collectibles feature is all about the SUH-BOOFFS!

Okay, if you don’t know what we’re talking about, then you clearly haven’t “Super Best Friends Forever,” DC Nation’s awesome series of shorts featuring a distinctly different take on Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Girl. So we suggest clicking here and fixing that right now. Go on… It won’t take long, we promise!

If you didn’t know, “Super Best Friends Forever” is the brainchild of Lauren Faust, the talented animator, writer and producer who also produced My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Here at DC Collectibles, we’re big fans of Lauren and of course, we’re crazy about SBFF, which is why we’re so excited about our new line of SBFF action figures. They were designed by Lauren and feature changeable faces, allowing you to perfectly capture the personality of the shorts. You can check them out above!

We were curious about the process of adapting SBFF’s 2D animation into 3D action figures, so we recently spoke to Lauren about it, her inspirations in creating the shorts, and which characters she’d love to see as DC Collectibles!

When designing these figures, where did you pull your inspiration?

From real teenage girls! Each of these characters' physiques came from girls I knew when I was young. When I was designing Supergirl, I was thinking of the girls in my high school who played field hockey. Their uniforms incorporated these short skirts, but their legs were all muscle! I found them so intimidating. Batgirl is based off of one of my best friends. And Wonder Girl, believe it or not, was inspired by myself. I'm rather tall, and when I was a teen, I was a lanky, stick-figure beanpole. Although I was more awkward and clumsy than Donna.

These designs are stylized, yet have realistic-based body types. How did you match body type to character?

I started with each character's most notable physical power and tried to combine it with an aspect of their personality. Batgirl is not as physically strong as Supergirl or Wonder Girl, but she is extremely agile, so I thought of gymnasts and how they are so often rather short and compact, like a coiled spring. In SBFF, she's also a very high-energy character, so this spring-like quality, and her small squirreliness also speaks to this.

I made Wonder Girl tall and lanky for two reasons: first, she's an Amazon, who I like to think are unusually tall, but she's also a teen, so she hasn't "filled out" yet. Second, she's the stoic rule-follower of the group. Designing her with lots of straight lines and angles, combined with her height, makes her literally straight and narrow.

Supergirl is the most obvious. Her power is strength, so I wanted her to be all muscle. A lot of girls carry their strength more in the lower body than the upper body, so I put it mostly in her legs. Giving her this bulk brought in a lot of round shapes, so I carried that out into her face, eyes, hair and even her hands.

Do you have a favorite SBFF character?

No, I love them all for different reasons. It's like having to say who your favorite child is. I will say I have the most fun drawing Wonder Girl, though. She's so gangly!

Is there a favorite SBFF episode or sequence that stands out in your mind?

I consider the moment that Supergirl gave Superman that wedgie as a high point in my career.

How do you think your two-dimensional designs translated to the three-dimensional form?

Better than I expected! I think it helps that the girls' designs are rooted in authentic anatomy. It's just that the shapes are very simplified and exaggerated.

You've seen SBFF figures, what other character would you like to see DC Collectibles create in the three-dimensional form?

I'd love, LOVE to see Brianne Drouhard's take on Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld as a collectible! She should come with a plushie of her horse!!!